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When private developers create a public riverwalk along the Lehigh River, who maintains it?

That’s just one of the questions raised by Allentown planners as developers Mark Jaindl and Dunn Twiggar Co. move forward with a $250 million mixed-use proposal for the city’s riverfront.

That plan — which includes 10 buildings housing 610,000 square feet of offices, 130,000 square feet of retail and 172 apartments — faces a vote for tentative approval by the city’s Planning Commission, the second of three approvals needed before construction can begin. Work on the property could start by the first quarter of 2014.

Waterfront developers had a workshop meeting with commissioners Thursday to hash out various issues involved with the 26-acre, two-phase development. Among those were who was going to maintain a multi-level walkway along the Lehigh River.

The PPL Building (seen here in the distance) is the tallest building in Allentown, Pennsylvania. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At first glance, Friday’s groundbreaking for the American Parkway Bridge looked pretty much like every other ceremony where shivering, dark-suited community leaders poke their gold-painted shovels into some carefully piled dirt.

But this time, behind all the pomp and pageantry were more than five decades of planning, fighting, waiting and frustration.

It was 1956 when excited city leaders first proposed a direct path between downtown Allentown and Route 22, and Friday those shovel-wielding leaders celebrated the beginning of construction of a $46 million American Parkway Bridge project they say represents both the struggles of the past and the promise of the future.

It will span the Lehigh River just north of the Tilghman Street bridge and south of the Route 22 bridge.